Ski Graphic Design & Brand Collaboration
The Client Rocky Mountain Underground is a Colorado-based ski company, small, independent, and deeply rooted in the culture of backcountry skiing. The project was a special collaboration with Protect Our Winters, the nonprofit advocacy organization fighting climate change on behalf of the snow sports community. Three limited-edition skis, sold exclusively at select REI locations, where design met purpose.
The Challenge Three skis. One cohesive set. Each model needed its own distinct personality, but together they had to read as a family. The creative brief was wonderfully specific: the narrowest ski should evoke a lager, light and crisp. The mid-width ski, an amber ale, warmer and richer. The widest, most powerful ski, a stout, dark, bold, and full-bodied. Craft beer as a design language for mountain equipment. It shouldn't work on paper, and yet it absolutely does.
The Approach This was the kind of brief that doesn't come along often: genuine creative freedom within a beautifully specific concept. I developed a graphic system that treated each ski as its own visual character while building in shared design elements that made the set unmistakably cohesive. The beer-to-ski translation became a study in color, texture, and mood. Lager light and clean, amber warm and layered, stout deep and graphic. The work extended beyond the skis themselves to a full-page advertisement that ran in Freeskier Magazine, one of the most respected publications in the ski world.
The Result Three limited-edition ski graphics sold exclusively through REI in support of Protect Our Winters, plus a Freeskier Magazine ad that put the collaboration in front of the core ski community. A project that sits at the exact intersection of outdoor culture, craft beer, and design craft. Which, not coincidentally, is exactly where I live.
Another example of a one-of-a-kind RMU ski design I designed for the founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Sam Calagione, as a gift for his service on the Brewers Association board of directors.